Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

well, not my kid, but my godson got a nice little robot doggy from us.. and how surprising it was that he didn't even like it, because it didn't do anything cool. more funnier it got when it ran out of batteries after 5minutes of using.

Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

Isn't it funny how kids are only interested in the toys that do something? Or the box it came in if they are young enough LOL

I remember when my daughter was 20months - it was Christmas and we gave her a plush Elmo. She was so excited! She ripped it out of the paper and hugged it then she started pushing on his belly... nothing happened
pushed each of his hands and feet, still nothing happened, she handed it back to me and said "mommy, Elmo broken"
When I told her that he didn't make any noises he was for hugging she looked at it like he was from outerspace. She placed him aside and held her hands out for her next present.
Elmo was rarely played with, we sold him in almost mint condition in a yard sale about 2 years ago. The little girl was so happy to have him! I told the mom no charge but she said it sent the wrong message to her kiddo (thank goodness there are level headed parents out there) so we charged the little girl the quarter that was in her hand and Elmo went to a very happy home.

Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

My kids are grown, but we have a Christmas tradition that goes back 20 years.

We get a $100 gift certificate (or card, nowadays) to a favorite bookstore like Borders or B&N for everyone. We choose a Saturday after New Years and go book shopping in the morning. We then go to a great steak house for lunch and review each other's new literary treasures. We look forward to this every new year. We also ask our kids if there's a gift they'd like, and go with their preferences. We exchange gifts over Christmas brunch.

Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

I don't have kids, but for years, I've been buying the children of my colleagues at work chocolate-filled advent calendars from Germany as their Christmas presents. They're inexpensive ($1.49 at World Market), and I don't have to worry about the gender or age of the children. In fact, I asked a colleague if her eighteen year old daughter would still be okay with getting one or if she'd think it was too juvenile and was told she would probably be keenly disappointed if she didn't get one, as she'd gotten one every year since she was old enough to eat chocolate.

Another colleague's child, when asked to do a show-and-tell about a family holiday tradition, told her parents she'd be bringing her advent calendar to school and talking about that. We were all fairly amused by that, since it wasn't their family tradition at all--it was my family tradition which I'd passed on to their kids. But off she went to school, the adopted Chinese daughter of Scotch-Irish parents to explain the significance of a German tradition. Now there's multi-culturalism in action!

Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

I'm 26 and my mom still buys me, my brother, and two cousins our chocolate advent calendars. It's a tradition that I look forward to every year. Last year I wasn't home to receive one, so my mom had it mailed to my work

Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

I do give my parents a substantial gift card each for Kohls Department Stores. I ask that they give me nothing and my Brother, SIL, Uncle and others have agreed we will not do gifts. Joey gets extra treats Christmas Day and I always give Monas' urn a rub and talk to her for a few minutes.

Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

I have a 7 year old going on 70. I call him my little old man and this year he declared that he really likes the way his grandmothers send him gift cards every year because it means he can pick out what he wants and get exactly what he wants. So this year, we went to the store together and I told him he had $250. He spent $200 and instructed me to put the rest into a gift card so he can spend it during the year. I will be wrapping up everything he chose (it's in the closet at the moment) and he will open it on Christmas morning. At his age, I'm pretty sure he's already forgotten what he picked out.

He got a new and better scooter, he does not ride a bike (none of his friends do) but they all skate board, scoot, and ice skate. He chose a bunch of different lego sets and something called Legend of Naria (some sort of electronic bugs that do battle?) and he also got an RC helicopter and a Zero gravity car (this car follows the laser beam that you point out of a gun like thing and goes up walls.) and a couple of Nintendo DSi games (that he insisted on buying used because he didn't want to spend a chunk of his money on them). He sort of surprised me with how much he thought everything out. He went to three different stores, wrote down what he liked and the prices and thought about it all over a week before presenting me with his final list.

While it took away some of the surprise aspect (his choice) it was also a very valuable budgeting lesson for him, so I'm proud of him and he gets what he wants.

Re: What are your kids getting for Christmas?

Love reading about the chocolate advent calendar memories. We usually do a paper chain to count down the days, but your posts have me wanting to try a new tradition.

Harmony2000, I am impressed! My son is that same age, and he's nowhere near that purposeful with his spending yet.

My children haven't really come up with any Christmas wishes yet, although I've told them to start thinking about it. My 10 year old daughter has wanted her ears pierced for years now, and hubby wants this to be one of her gifts. We'll see on that one; but I know it would mean a lot to her.

I was wondering if you that have young or school-aged children have any tips or traditions you follow when it comes to gifts. There was a post upthread that mentioned gifts of three which I thought was neat and symbolic. As far as keeping our holiday spending in check, we go into it knowing whatever we spend on our children, we will spend the same on other children (through angel tree or something similar in our community).

Oh, and I meant to comment on the usillygoose site - I liked that, especially the wind-up toys and animal whoopie cushions. Thanks for posting about it. A sort of similar site for toys that I like is Hearthsong (or Magic Cabin for littler ones).